Effects of Marathi-Hindi Bilingualism on Neuropsychological Performance

Abstract

The present study aimed to examine if bilingualism affects executive functions and verbal fluency in Marathi and Hindi, two major languages in India, with a considerable cognate (e.g., activity is actividad in Spanish) overlap. A total of 174 native Marathi speakers from Pune, India, with varying levels of Hindi proficiency were administered tests of executive functioning and verbal performance in Marathi. A bilingualism index was generated using self-reported Hindi and Marathi proficiency. After controlling for demographic variables, the association between bilingualism and cognitive performance was examined. Degree of bilingualism predicted better performance on the switching (Color Trails-2) and inhibition (Stroop Color-Word) components of executive functioning; but not for the abstraction component (Halstead Category Test). In the verbal domain, bilingualism was more closely associated with noun generation (where the languages share many cognates) than verb generation (which are more disparate across these languages), as predicted. However, contrary to our hypothesis that the bilingualism “disadvantage” would be attenuated on noun generation, bilingualism was associated with an advantage on these measures. These findings suggest distinct patterns of bilingualism effects on cognition for this previously unexamined language pair, and that the rate of cognates may modulate the association between bilingualism and verbal performance on neuropsychological tests.

Cognitive Reserve in Parkinson’s Disease: The Effects of Welsh-English Bilingualism on Executive Function

“…The nature of the bilingual pairing of Welsh/English may affect the nature of the interaction with neuropsychological function and language as it has done in other language pairs [ 27 ]. This is the first study of cognitive reserve in any neurodegenerative condition in Welsh/English bilinguals and the effect has not yet been demonstrated in this population for AD.…”

“…In this study there was a significant correlation between the degree of bilingualism and one test of nonverbal general reasoning and one of working memory although there was no correlation with any other test of executive function. The effects of the degree of bilingualism may warrant further study since the nature of the different bilingual pairs and degree of switching between the languages may influence the effect of cognitive reserve [ 27 ]. In the present study there was no effect of a greater daily use of Welsh on EF although there was an effect on a test of vocabulary favouring those who used less Welsh in daily life.…”

“…Bilingual patients diagnosed with probable AD exhibit substantially greater amounts of brain atrophy than monolinguals [ 24 ] protecting against the cognitive effects of age-related declines in white matter integrity [ 25 ]. The degree of bilingualism may be important in promoting cognitive reserve [ 26 ], and the nature of the particular languages may affect the nature of the interaction with neuropsychological function and bilingualism [ 27 ]. One study has shown an advantage for multilingualism [ 28 ] but not for bilingualism on age of AD diagnosis, whereas other studies have not shown the effect of language at all [ 22 , 29 ].…”

Absence of neurocognitive impairment in a large Chinese sample of HCV-infected injection drug users receiving methadone treatment

“…However, this test battery was sensitive to relatively mild, HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders (HAND) in previous studies conducted in China (Cysique et al, 2010; Heaton et al, 2008; Schrier et al, 2012; Spector et al, 2010), and in numerous other non-Western countries including Zambia (Hestad et al, 2012), Cameroon (Kanmogne et al, 2010; Njamnshi et al, 2009), Nigeria (e.g., Royal et al, 2012), South Africa (Spies et al, 2012), India (Kamat et al, 2012), Romania (Joseph et al, 2013), and Brazil (Ellis et al, 2007), in addition to the U.S. (e.g., Heaton et al, 2010).…”

Neurocognitive functioning among HIV-positive adults in southern India

“…Contrary to expectations, we found that HIV+ patients performed better on demographically-corrected measures of verbal fluency compared to HIV− controls. This unexpected result raises the possibility that the normative corrections, developed from a relatively small, HIV−, control group, inadequately controlled for the effects of factors such as bilingualism and quality of education, which might impact performance on language measures 30 . This study was not designed to capture these variables.…”